Solos in each pentatonic box

BlueStrat

Does anyone know any (not too technical) solos that are in each pentatonic position?

So for example, Hey Joe is in shape 1 - that sort of example?

What's a good solo in position 1,2,3,4,5?

Thanks guys!

Dan_Halen

Most guitarists in pop/rock stuff just use a couple of positions for the bulk of the solo and even when in a major key often use the relative minor pentatonic anyway. Think you might struggle to find solos that specifically use a certain shape outside of maybe a tutorial book with some solos built for that purpose.

What is a useful exercise for this, and is helpful in many other ways, would be to take some licks or chunks of solo from one shape and figure out and play them in the other shapes. Even if you need to figure them out with a pen and paper first it gets you using and hearing the important tones in the lesser used shapes.

viz

Dan_Halen said:

What is a useful exercise for this, and is helpful in many other ways, would be to take some licks or chunks of solo from one shape and figure out and play them in the other shapes. Even if you need to figure them out with a pen and paper first it gets you using and hearing the important tones in the lesser used shapes.

Great suggestion. 

There’s a bit of Ladies Night in Buffalo that’s in the 3rd position. 

hollywoodrox

Here’s some licks in each position 

https://www.musicradar.com/tuition/guitars/50-rock-guitar-licks-you-need-to-know-404838

Mr_Claw

hollywoodrox said:

Here’s some licks in each position 

https://www.musicradar.com/tuition/guitars/50-rock-guitar-licks-you-need-to-know-404838

Very useful! Thanks! Not that that sort of rock-god thing's my style, but great to learn and have under the belt! 

axisus

Actually the thing that most progressed my improv* was shifting between the boxes rather than staying in one. Moving around the neck a lot more. 

*please don't confuse me with someone impressive though

Dominic

Yes ,try to play the same little solo/ditty/melody out of all the positions of the key
THEN,
Try and play them between 2 positions in the same key 
 Then try and play them between 2 other positions in same key
You will soon find that linking up the pentatonic (or any other scale boxes )becomes quite fluent and automatic

steven70

Have a listen to some early Clapton. Cream is a good start. A lot of the solos are focussed around 1 or 2 boxes.

White Room, for example, I think is mainly based on the 1st and 2nd.

Also you can move around to add dynamics (e.g. 1 and 2 for a bit, than move to 3 and 4 for a bit.) 

Again, Clapton is good to work out If you like that kind of thing.

It's probably limiting to see the fretboard in 'boxes' but I do...

tanihhiavlt

For me the "boxes" (pentatonic, caged, etc) provide 3 bits of information. 

Lowest bass note.
Highest note in the lead line.
Where the root note is.

Playing stuff on one string alone helps place those boxes as you ruefully note needing to drop the melody line by an octave to continue playing it (coulda stepped off onto the next string at the fifth fret if I wasn't playing one string) and notice it sounds better to change octave on some notes than others.

Boxes are fun for finding the slickest points to transition from one to the other... I think the trick with improvisation is boxes present convenient patterns but those patterns might not be the patterns we genuinely wanted to play. Practising Improvisation involves not being entertained by the easy alternatives to sound we originally wanted to hear

kelpbeds

BlueStrat said:

Does anyone know any (not too technical) solos that are in each pentatonic position?

So for example, Hey Joe is in shape 1 - that sort of example?

What's a good solo in position 1,2,3,4,5?

Thanks guys!

This vid I did on my channel should really help you as it's all about playing out of the chords.

arayadis

Comfortably Numb is a very good example for pentatonic shapes Stairway to Heaven too.
You'll see most of the classic rock song solos have all the boxes.

pmbomb

BlueStrat said:

Does anyone know any (not too technical) solos that are in each pentatonic position?

So for example, Hey Joe is in shape 1 - that sort of example?

What's a good solo in position 1,2,3,4,5?

Thanks guys!

Dancing In the Moonlight (Thin Lizzy) is 95% box 1.

I'm doing it now and pretty much have it except I can't do the 'twiddly bit' at record tempo so will adapt that.